{"id":6383,"date":"2017-10-02T18:44:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T18:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=6383"},"modified":"2017-10-03T18:52:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T18:52:26","slug":"keeping-date-policy-practice-international-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/keeping-date-policy-practice-international-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Up to Date With Policy and Practice at International Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teachers, heads of department and principals in International Schools want to keep up with the latest in educational thinking – but given that they are often following curricula, policy and best practice set thousands of miles away from where they teach, what\u2019s the best way to do it?<\/p>\n

\"policy\"<\/p>\n

The wealth of resources available on the internet is the obvious starting point, but the problem is how to filter out the best resources.<\/p>\n

In the twenty or so years that I\u2019ve been involved in publishing educational materials, I\u2019ve come up with the following ways of keeping in touch.<\/p>\n

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  1. Get regular updates from reliable, trustworthy sources who do some of the searching and filtering for you. My list is below – form your own and keep reviewing it so you know you\u2019re getting good quality information (and not too much of it).<\/li>\n
  2. Form a research group with colleagues. This could be in the form of a book group, picking a recent educational title and discussing it in a local cafe, an online discussion group, or a more in-depth action research group within your school, with neighbouring schools or online. There are plenty of \u2018how to\u2019 guides online – try this blog<\/a> as a starting point.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Policy\"<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Try to find some local events to visit so you can network with colleagues and hear directly from researchers. The researchED<\/a> group, for example, runs events all over the world – upcoming events at the time of writing include New York, Toronto and Amsterdam as well as their longer-established UK events. They are teacher-led, research-focused and very, very popular.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      My list of policy updates<\/em><\/p>\n

      These are the best policy updates I\u2019ve seen and the ones that I find most useful. This is a UK-flavoured list as that\u2019s where my experience lies, and I know many of you teach a British or British-influenced curriculum; it would be great to hear from US curriculum colleagues as to where you would go for similar advice.<\/p>\n